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The Law as a Tool - the project and organization

The Law as a Tool (In Swedish: Med lagen som verktyg) is a both the name of an ILI project and a Swedish organization spreading awareness and legal expertise on discrimination due to disability and defending the rights of people with disabilities.

Background

Too little attention has been paid to implementation of the disability discrimination law, in particular the need to involve the disability community in enforcement of the law. Civil society can and should help to ensure that the law is implemented so that case law can develop.

Case law is needed for both fulfilling the law´s reparative function in individual cases and the prevention of future discrimitation. Role models like DREDF (USA) and Bizchut (Israel) have demonstrated that civil society can play a role in both developing legislation and enforcing the law.

The organisation

The Law as a Tool (In Swedish: Med lagen som verktyg) is a Swedish organization with the purpose to defend and advance human rights for people with disabilities and counter the discrimination of the same group in Sweden.

The organization contributes to case law by taking on cases where members have been discriminated against due to disability. The Law as a Tool pays all costs related to the litigation with money from membership fees and donations.

You find more information at the website of the organisation. We do not have the resources to translate our webpage to English, but we strongly encourage non-Swedish speaking citizens of or visitors to Sweden to contact us if you are discriminated against in Sweden.

The project

The project The Law as a Tool for Social Change is owned by Independent Living Institute and runs March 2016-February 2019 with support from the Swedish Inheritage Fund. It aims to raise awareness of discrimination due to disability and the possibilities and pitfalls concerning cases. It provides general assistance to attorneys taking on disability discrimination cases and offer education and support.

Swedish Association of the Deaf, Swedish Youth Association of the Deaf and the non-profit association The law as a tool has submitted a communication to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, requesting the Committee to recognise that Sweden has violated the rights of Richa

other stakeholders working with "the Law as a Tool” in the fight against discrimination

To gather in Stockholm for an exchange of knowledge and increase in competence on discrimination and disability, implementation of rights and ways of using strategic litigation to give disabled people better legal protection and better quality of life.

Comments from Independent Living Institute (and The Swedish Disability Rights Federation) on the Draft General Comment nr 6 on article 5 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Equality and non-discrimination.

Sebastian Häregård, 14, was illegally discriminated against in his school Nästegårdsskolan in Vara municipality, Sweden. The municipality had failed to take measures for accessibility that are required. Deficient ramps and heavy doors which had not been rectified was sufficient to conclude that Sebastian had not been put in a comparable situation to pupils without his impairment.

The Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) sued the municipality for illegal discrimination in the form of deficient accessibility (Discrimination act 2008:567, 1:4 3p.). The Skaraborg District Court judgment was delivered on May 24 2017 (case no T-2447-16), establishing that the municipality is obliged to pay 30 000 SEK to Sebastian as compensation for discrimination.

On 24 and 25 November 2016, the Law as a Tool for Social Change project arranged a conference and two seminars on how civil society, through strategic litigation, can counteract discrimination against people with disabilities and contribute to case law and the changing of legal norms.